Insights Of The Two-Good Theory Into European Community/European Union's Policy Towards Eastern Europe During And After The Cold War

Recent events that took place in Eastern Europe-the annexation of Crimean Peninsula by Russian Federation,war in the eastern Ukraine and the latest,Russian Federation's insistence on a merger with Belarus – turned it into a new hotspot in international affairs and attracted the interest of scholar community in an effort to interpret European Union's foreign policy in this region.These studies mainly revolve around three conventional theories(liberal-idealist,neorealist and constructivist)and while bringing an important theoretical input they possess a series of limitations which preclude the framing of European Union's policy towards Eastern Europe in a consistent manner.This thesis introduces the two-good theory as a novel theory of foreign policy which is built around the critiques of the conventional theories of international relations.Unlike the latter,the main assumption of the two-good theory is that states are seeking more than one goal through their foreign policy.Using abstraction it implies that foreign policies can be divided in those producing change and those producing maintenance of status quo.The shift in states' foreign policies from producing maintenance to producing change,and vice versa,occurs according to the variance in two factors: their capacities and preferences.There are two hypotheses resulting from the two-good theory which I adapted to the purpose of our research.I subject them to empirical testing and based on the resulting qualitative and quantitative evidence conclude whether two-good theory offers a consistent and viable basis from which European Union's policy towards Eastern Europe can be conceptualized.